architects and urban designers

Wybourn Estate, Sheffield

Location: Sheffield, UK

Programme: 2012

Client: Great Places Housing Group

Contract Value: £500,000

Wybourn was a housing estate with challenges arising from its social profile of low-income marginalised people. Added to this was a layout which was weak, mitigating against community life. Arca’s work on the northern edge of the estate was an opportunity to present a new facade to the world. To be realised in a series of phases of 25-50 homes, the urban design principles centred on breaking the existing blocks into smaller pieces. The homes themselves used standard housetypes with the addition of a bay window onto the street – the whole being sheltered by a protective roof reaching down to ground level. This asymmetric silhouette could be combined with various brick colours and housetypes to give a broad range of solutions for specific street accents.